I popped into a print shop to get something framed noticed a nicely stitched pano
hanging on the wall, as I entered into a discussion with the shop owner how he did it,
process he used... I mentioned I had some some files to print large and what were his
requirements for the prints to my amazement his reply was:
1. the files can be .jpg "cause it doesn't really matter nobody can notice the difference"
2. the colorspace we print in is sRGB
3. we print 300ppi but I can do 100ppi no problem
4. When I asked about supplying a profile he didn't seem to care
My question is : Is this shop owner correct ? Does the viewer not care ? or not sensitive to know the difference
and furthermore Where does one seek out a Fine Art printer ?
I can't say he is 100% wrong because some might have a particlar workflow that they familiar with and don't like to change.
But here is how I reply to his 4 points (I do fine art and commercial printing and I do provide color managment services for clients)
1. Yes, a good JPG is good enough for print and you won't be able to see any difference with your naked eye.
2. Don't know why he only prints in sRGB. If he is using the printer driver and a proper printer profile, the print application such as Photoshop will make a color conversion from your source profile (sRGB, Adobe RGB) to the destination profile (paper profile) with some sort of rendering intent. Even he uses a RIP, it will do the same thing as well. So whoever say they can only print in sRGB, there must be something going on with his color management. (Maybe he is working with a close loop color management, sort of?)
3. If your original file has less than 300 dpi, you could resample it to 300 with your own techniques. If the file is more than 300dpi, you shouldn't be too worry about it. Any printer can print at any dpi, just a matter of sharpness.
4. You can tell him you want to use the paper icc profile for soft-proof and maybe need some extra color correction before you send him the file. If he still ignores you, I don't think he uses any proper ICC profile at all. Many signage shop does not have proper icc profile for every single material, the reason why is they might use 100 different kinds and what they usually does is use the one that has very close white point to it. He might be doing the samething as well for photo printing.
If you ask him if he is "professional" enough, I would say, yeah, he might know what he's doing, but when it comes to proper color management, maybe so so.
aaron